living witb a Xafce. 201 



in hemlock, maple, and chestnut, and there the bright 

 green of the willows at the low water edge contrasts 

 with the darker tints of the elms in the meadows be- 

 hind. On one side, bold, rocky ledges fall abruptly 

 away into deep water, and opposite, the sedges and 

 the rushes grow far out into the shallows. This is the 

 rich green summer setting of the lake. How fortun- 

 ate the eye privileged to follow all the transformations 

 in the foliage and herbage around it, from the early, 

 tender greens of April, till the last brown leaf is 

 whisked into its waves by November gales ! 



Companionship with the lake involves, of course, 

 some degree of association with the forms of life 

 which surround it, of which it is a sort of centre and 

 rallying-point. This includes, perhaps, the human 

 beings who haunt its surface, and linger about its 

 shores. Though really these are rather adjuncts, 

 foreign to its real life, than part of its being, or 

 essentials of its character. They seem like the flies 

 which crawl over the body of a man, yet are no part 

 of him ; and so far as the lake is a spectacle, it can- 

 not be said that its human neighbours succeed in 

 making themselves very distinguished or important 

 as elements thereof. They go pulling about over its 

 bright waves in their little skiffs ; but the glint of 

 their oars is only one more flash added to the millions 

 which greet the eye from every wavelet and billow. 

 Or they sit dejectedly hour after hour, watching the 

 floats of their fishing-lines, which rarely give any 

 sign of being agitated by the wary fish below ; and 



